Hello Welcome to SoM.
Here are links that will help you in your quest;
http://www.spellsofmagic.com/read_post.html?post=331711&offset=2 (Survival guide)
http://www.spellsofmagic.com/newbie_central.html (Newbie Central)
http://www.spellsofmagic.com/faqs.html (FAQS)
http://www.spellsofmagic.com/read_post.html?post=483942 (Awaketoolong's Basics- Expanded)
These should help you some, and also reasearch and reading will do a lot of help.